This is a brief article about a change in home buying trends toward less square footage and in favor of higher quality of life in terms of neighborhood. It's the second in a two part series. It resonated with me because I grew up in a suburban (not McMansions by any stretch) neighborhood detached from any civic or cultural hub activity. People mostly kept to themselves and within their yards, and I always longed as a kid to be able to walk places and just observe human activity or go to a store. Had it been purely rural I might have been satisfied in other ways but it didn't really have the advantages of rural or urban life. That is the reality I think of many suburbs - yes, there is a city somewhere in the vicinity but you are surrounded by private property, so it's kind of the crud of both worlds rather than the best.